The activities leading to these results have received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement nr. 289159.

Partners

Kai-Uwe Schwarz,

Kiel,Germany

Work description

The OPTIMISC consortium consists of 12 partners in and outside Europe. The project activities are split into eight work packages with one WP fully dedicated to the management and coordination of the activities.

WP2 is responsible for the in vitro propagation and distribution of pre-selected miscanthus plant material from existing miscanthus pools in the United Kingdom, Netherlands and Germany. Propagated genotypes are supplied to partners for abiotic stress screening trials and field experiments.

WP3 is examining the extent, mechanisms and variability of miscanthus genotypes regarding the tolerance to abiotic stresses like drought, salinity, cold and freezing under controlled conditions on the laboratory scale and in the field. This will enable selection of genotypes that perform well under abiotic stress and selection ofthe traits and genotypes carrying these tolerance traits.

Yield and biomass quality in a wide range of environments are under investigation in WP4, taking into consideration traits such as senescence, nutrient recycling and nutrient-use efficiency. Field evaluation protocols for standardised measurements across seven sites in Europe were developed to evaluate 15 selected genotypes in a multi-location filed trial.

In WP5 project team members in Ukraine, UK and Germany have established large scale field trials for investigating the the process-ability of miscanthus biomass to convenient fuel formats and for the development and testing of technologies for large scale commercial miscanthus production.

Relating miscanthus biomass properties to added value products is object of research in WP6. The aim is to identify high-yielding miscanthus genotypes which produce biomass of excellent quality for different added-value uses and which are optimal for multiple plant-derived bioproducts.

Data gathered inWPs 3-6 will be integrated in the development of modelling parameters needed to build up life-cycle analysis models and other decision support tools to identify optimum combinations of miscanthus genotype and envisaged uses for different environments and production scenarios across (WP7).

Through the dissemination activities in WP8, information on the project, project outcomes and recommendations for specific user groups will be communicated to a wide range of stakeholders. Over thirty dissemination activities organised by the team members took place and were documented in 2012-2013.